I think the myth about the Maine Coon being a mix between a domestic cat and a bobcat is highly possible. My ex-wife and I got a maine coon kitten from her brother who had domestic cats in an area of Virginia that is also known to have bobcats in the woods near his house.

One of his mother's cats came home one day from being out in the after several days. Several weeks later she gave birth to a litter of kittens which all turned out to be Maine Coon when her own bloodline had never had any Maine Coon kittens.

I had spent the night at my ex's brother's house on many occasions prior to mine and her divorce of course and have heard and seen the bobcats in the woods next to his house.

All of what I have just stated gives me reason to believe the myth of the Maine Coon being a cross between a domestic cat and a bobcat may very well be more than just a myth. Of course I can not say positively that this is the case because I did not actually see what his momma kitty mated with, but still I believE it still makes a good case for the mix.

Comments for Maine Coon A Domestic Cat Bobcat Hybrid?

I live in southwest Florida and I saw a bobcat mate with a stray cat I had been feeding and now she gave birth to one big kitten that looks nothing like the mother and definitely like the bobcat or huge main coon

Mar 01, 2011

IT CAN BE POSSABLE TO HAVE BOBCAT HYBRIDS by: JIM SHACK

IF BULLDOG BREEDERS CAN MAKE FEMALE BULLDOG FERTILE THEN WHY CAN NOT BOBCAT BREEDERS DO THE SAME WITH WITH OTHER CATS LIKE THE MAINE COON CATS??

Jan 05, 2011

catsby: Anonymous

umm did you have any that were born without tails?

Jan 05, 2011

we called ours cabatsby: Anonymous

umm did you have any that were born without tails?

Sep 20, 2010

This could explain a lotby: candes

Well this could explain my purebred and very spotted Maine Coon. LOL... His spots came out of nowhere.... His dad was even a red!

Jul 09, 2010

Maine coon, NFC, bobcat by: Anonymous

It would be extrodinary and fasanating if such a hybridasation would of occured though the possibity that it happened is very rare. Maine cats were originaly brought to the north eastern part of the states by the nordic tribes of scandinavia that arrived between 900,1100 AD. They became companions and pets of farmers who valued and used them for protection of crops against birds and rodents. this also occured a couple of centuries before in norway when the vikings brought semi wild domesticated cats from the east and accustomised them in the same way but in a more harsher and colder climate which gave birth to the norwegian forest cat who still today remains a popular house cat. Whether the NFC is the ancestor of the maine coon is likely they both share similar characteristics, a long heavy furry coat, a more large robost bone muscle structure then your average house tabby, tuffed lynx like ears, and a gentile giant temperment from its distance country farm upbringing but still retaining their sharp hunting abilities and eagerness to mimic a bite from behind a window when a bird flaps its wings. About the bobcat mating with ferals to create so called pixie bob hybrids is a an unlikely sernario. The bite force of the lynx rufus is more then tripple then that of felis and if it ever would try and mate a domestic then the bite would seriously injur the back of the female tabbys neck. Vice versa if even an uneutored angry male feral tom could try and mate with a double sized female bobcat it would be met with fierce aggression and probably end up badly hurt or worse since when bobcats tend to venture into urban human enviornments, any slightly smaller sized domestic pets unfortuantly fall victim to prey.

Jul 03, 2010

I believe youby: Joyce Sammons

I live near Greenwood, SC. Many years ago I had a timberwolf mate with a lab/chow mix. I ended up with a loyal solid gray female with baby blue eyes.

My cat Furby is a feral. I found her in the middle of nowhere. He's pretty famous on this site. At first he didn't know how to play nip. He'd bite and hang on. And you should see him eat. He'll hold down a piece of food and rip it apart with him teeth. There are bobcats in my area also. I've even seen a few dead ones on the side of the road after being hit.

Furby has proven himself to be the most interesting cat I've ever had. And he may be part Maine Coon, part bobcat or part Nebulung. Since I never saw either parent I'll never know.

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Maine Coon A Domestic Cat Bobcat Hybrid? — 18 Comments

Ok, for the love of God!!! As I type Lynx and Bobcats are cross breeding (((IN THE WILD)))!!! Their are pictures taken by the game and Fish Department, as well as licensed breeders that are crossing 100% pure genetic Lynx cats and 100% Bobcats, with (((no))) sterility, none! This is simply because the North American Bobcat (((was))) descended from the Lynx and not the other way around!!! My God I literally laughed until I teared up at you ‘so-called-experts’, lol. Simply go to any licensed exotic cat breeder and you will find the hybrid pictures, just like I did! Now remember these BobLynx cats aren’t (((STERILE))), they are regularly producing cubs, Veterinarians are considering calling it a new subspecies! No ‘know-it-all’s, remember the Zeedonk?, 1/2 Zeebera, 1/2 Donkey, how about the (Mule), 1/2 Horse, 1/2 Donkey (and) ((NO)), not every Mule is guaranteed to be sterile! Anyone ever hear of a low land red wolf, anyone at all? That’s 1/2 Coyote and 1/2 wolf crossed! Hell, when I was on the Denie reservation , I had a red Fox/juvenile Coyote cross and yes it lived and was very healthy! A Rocky Mountain Coon Cat is literally (((1))) steppe down from a Bobcat, you severally misinformed morons! As I type Licensed exotic breeders are re crossing Bob/Lynx cats, with larger coon cats, believe it or go jump in the lake for all I care! One last thing, anyone ever hear of a Osocat??? Anyone at all, for Gods sake? An Osocat is a Osolot, at or over 4 foot African wild cat crossed with a regular American House Cat, and guess what, it’s about 80% of it enormous size, it hisses, growls and even produced some kind of snake like sound, when I saw it on T.V. it gave me the creeps. Anyway, the cats ((START)) at 30,000.00$ My conclusion is simply this, if we can cross a 4 foot long African wild Jungle cat with a damn house cat, why in the hell can’t licensed, professional breeders, cross boblynx/coon cats????? The answer, we can and only a retarded moron wouldn’t realize that! Nature has been producing hybrids long before whites came to this Country, just to shoot their damn mouths off about subjects they know (((NOTHING))) about!!!

Thanks for the passionate comment! I have never heard of the “Osocat”. There is a hybrid cat (not a wild cat hybrid however) called the Ocicat. I have a list of wild cat hybrids on this page. The Osocat is not listed. Please make a comment on that page too if you have time and please provide a link to other sources because I am not sure the “Osocat” exists. You are vague as to the type of wild cat species that is the wild cat part of the hybrid. An “African wildcat” is no a “jungle cat”.

My mom has a (over) 25 pound Orange Tabby, with Bobcat markings. Now here’s the ‘kicker’, he runs with two other purebred Bobcats, leading me to theorize that he might have been born in the same litter, since, Cats had sometimes have more than one male Suitor. I’ll have to get more pictures of him but he is strangely muscular, very solid, has high ears and a really messed up type of growl. His front Incisors are to huge to be Domesticated. The only ‘difference’, is that he doesn’t have large Bobcat feet but, since they all plat together, no one has told him that, lol, lol! 🙂

My God, John, he sounds like he could be that elusive bobcat x domestic cat hybrid. I’d love to see some pictures. If you can upload some to a new comment or two that would be great and thanks for telling us. All that said some orange tabbies are bloody enormous.

Well, I’ve downloaded about all of the pictures that I can, he has Stripes (and) Spots, from the Bobcat/Lynx side, as well as Orange tabby characteristics. I ‘also’ downloaded a picture of a Bobcat/lynx, it had spots, with stripes (and) a muscular long tail, with high ears and big feet. I believe this to be the ‘Genome’ characteristics of the Bobcat/Lynx back breeding. This, of course occurs (before)the feral Orange Tabby Genes are mixed. We also have two pure bred Bobcat Cubs, under the outside wet cooler, hopefully, I’ll have one too. 🙂 My cousin has hand raised a Mountain Lion and bottle fed it it’s whole life, my second Cousin has done the same thing,…so don’t try and tell me that all wild animals are killers! Hell, my mom has even raised a ((HERD)) of (17)Javelins, all peaceful and all addicted to cookies, lol, lol! 🙂 She even waters Red Wolfs, which are Wolfs, mixed with Coyotes. What’s the moral? If you show ((LOVE)) and kindness, to animals, that other idiots fear and hunt, you’d be surprise the respect and love that they will give back to you. 🙂

If you show ((LOVE)) and kindness, to animals, that other idiots fear and hunt, you’d be surprise the respect and love that they will give back to you

That is a sentiment that I completely agree with and I am pleased that you dislike sport hunting as much as I do. Also there are a lot of people as you say who fear certain animals including cats because they don’t understand and don’t respect and love them as, for example, you do. Thanks for the comment.

Welllllllll, I’ve found a ((SECOND)) Hybrid. It was Max, mixed with Bobcat, unfortunately, it was on the Reservation and had it’s face hit by a truck bumper. It had a muscular, short striped tail, thick , muscular body, high ears big head, thick, long high ears, with tufts. It had stripes, with a limited # of black dots, covered by a lighter Grey over coat. Once again, the only difference, was that the paws were smaller that a regular Bobcat but, that’s it, it looked (exactly)like a large toothed Bobcat/ Domesticated Manx mix.

There are no authenticated bobcat/domestic hybrids, only anecdotal ones. Even breeders who have witnessed mating between the 2 species have not achieved any offspring. The only way to know for sure is to get a DNA test on the cat. Bobcats are variable in appearance and to add to the confusion there are authenticated ocelot/bobcat hybrids in existence that look like tabby bobcats (these were originally bred as pets).

Lol, lol, ooooh, here we go again Sarah! Ever heard of a Red Wolf? Probabally not, lol, that’s a Wolf, Coyote hybred. How abour an ASIAN LEAPPARD CAT, crossed, with any domestic cat,…yea, probabally not. How about a Zee-Donk,….a Zeebera, crossed with a Donkey or a Zeebra-Highland Scottish horse, eh……probably not. How about a MULE, a Donkey, crossed with a horse? Na, probabally not, how about a 30,000$ Serval-cat, naaaa, probabally not. How about a Jeffery cat, Coon Cat cross, eh,….naaaa none of it exists, and all of the breeding pictures, as well as, living proof that I have, is allll made up too. Listen very carefully Sarah, I’m working on my 5TH DEGREE, my DOCTORATE, take my advice, do your research (first), before you decide to open your mouth!!!!! 🙂

John, I am not sure what you are getting at and I do not like your attitude. I presume you are referring to Sarah Hartwell’s comment. If you are, it seems you are being heavy-handed because she says that stories of this hybrid are anecdotal.

Sarah Hartwell is very analytical. She takes a balanced view about everything she writes about while researching information very thoroughly. It is impossible to be critical of her. So why you being critical of her?

A few years back, me and my Wife was with in about 15 yards of the biggest Brown Bear, that I have ever seen in my entire (43) years of life. All it was doing was feeding it’s self by raiding the really big garbage cans, in our neighborhood. You may not believe me but, it was probably 7′, 1″, and enormous. Anyway, as we watched it, , it slowly stopped eating and began to walk away. Now here’s the part that (no one) will believe, the neighbors young cat arched it’s back and, hissed at it, causing the Bear to make a scared sound and all that you could hear were heavy claw trotting marks across the pavement and down the road, lol, lol!!!! I swear on the Bible, lol! Let that be a “true” lesson, no healthy animal wil ever attack unless it’s cornered and that’s a fact! 🙂

I have a shorter haired Maine coon and was told by the people I got her from that her dad was part bobcat and I believe it because she is very loving to us unless we rough house with her, which my husband does on occasion, but when it comes to strangers she can be very cautious, to the point she will stand her ground, as in growling and hissing,I think thats the bobcat in her. We have to put her up in the bedroom when company comes over